Last season to try and improve my performance I went down the route of having discipline specific lessons with instructors who specialised in that field. This did help in some areas and Soap’s short stay at ‘SJ Boot Camp’ really made a noticeable difference, but having separate lessons from 3 different people (so in affect 3 different points of view) I found it really hard to decipher the common themes between them all, and not get tangled up in knots when they were telling me conflicting instructions! So....this year I knew I needed to try a different method and started to look for an instructor with experience in eventing, and a good foundation in dressage as I’m aware this is increasingly becoming the most influential phase. It must have been my lucky day then when my physio Mel Gurdon gave me the number of Amanda Brewer. I booked a lesson with Amanda at the end of Jan and had my 2nd lesson with her yesterday and already she has made a huge difference in my thinking, riding and Soap’s way of going. I like to be told the mechanics of riding, what I need to do physically, and what impact that will have on the horse. I love the way Amanda is very black and white, and she doesn’t dumb down, she will explain the science, history, and her personal experience of teaching methods so that you are being educated as a rider not just instructed like a puppet. I plan to try and have a lesson with her almost every week in order to make a big difference to our standard before we are too far into the season, and then reduce the frequency slightly and increase the number of events entered. Below is a short video from this week’s lesson which if compared to our dressage test at Tweseldown BE90/Intro in March last year I think you can see a marked difference!
Tips from the lesson – Flatwork
  • Remember to keep my hands level and an even contact in both reins
  • Work him up and to the contact
  • If I feel my troublesome left hand creeping back give the rein away
  • Keep the neck soft, fat and bouncy
  • Don’t let him roll over at the poll
  • Encourage stretch down and to the bit not just curling under
  • From canter to trot – rebalance and then ask for more forwards
  • Before a transition ask for a tiny bit of leg yield and in the soft moment make the transition
  • Keep the left shoulder up by raising my hand to ‘pick him up’
Flatwork exercise – In trot ride a circle and at each quarter of the circle change leg so that you ride a ¼ on the correct leg then a ¼ on the wrong leg etc This highlights any stiffness or bias your horse has so work on keeping the neck supple, the rhythm constant and the eventual aim is for there to be no noticable change in feel between diagonals (a good exercise to try on Jack!)

Tips from the lesson – Jumping
  • Ride him up to the bridle and have an even contact in both reins
  • If even contact in both reins fails get outside contact, rebalance and restore even contact
  • Keep a light almost 2 point seat to allow him to really move and use his back
  • Keep a big bouncy rhythm
As well as all my homework above Amanda also wants me to get Soap a softer dressage snaffle rather than his Myler which he was fitted for about 3 years ago, and suggested that he may need a couple of scoops of energy boosting mix added to his feed as his workload increases. She did make me giggle though when she asked ‘Chloe why does he not have any boots or bandages on?’ and I replied like a typical eventer ‘Well it’s just flatwork....’ and she explained that he was a ‘dressage horse in training’ now and because I was asking him for more movement and a bigger action we had to guard against him knocking himself or as she put it ‘bring your bandages next time Chloe he’s precious now’ I just hope Soap doesn’t turn into a dressage diva after hearing that!  

 


Comments

Kim

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:45:07

Soap is looking Fab!! Going really nicely. Did she give you any tips about the naughty left hand, I have an extremely out of control left hand at the moment and it is making everything look very ugly :(

 

Chloe Ammonds-Nutt

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:58:26

Awwww thank you :)

Her tips were imagine your hands are in a box and try to keep them within the box. Also if I feel my left hand creeping back towards me give it away. The main tip was to look at them, I know that sounds obvious, but I was almosy actively ignoring them before! :)

Chloe

 

kim

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:08:04

Thanks, I will give that a bash!

 



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